Military, police and similar personnel have particular needs in respect of life preservers. Such personnel often carry a significant amount of heavy equipment which has little or no buoyancy. Accordingly, any life preserver worn by such personnel requires sufficient buoyancy to support the weight of the equipment as well as the wearer. Additionally, the life preserver should not affect their manoeuvrability or access to their equipment. Assault parties and casualty response units in particular require the protection of a life preserver which does not interfere with the operations the personnel need to perform.
It is also desirable that the inflated life preserver rotate the wearer, weighted with equipment, from a face down to a face up position in water and maintain the wearer's face out of the water. This requirement has been difficult to achieve.